iMovie – Best Settings for Streaming Video

OK, well I learned a lot this afternoon. I just finished a bunch of rough cuts on some video we shot for a client’s website. I need to post the video for the client’s review, but didn’t know how to properly configure the exported video for Internet viewing. My first attempt produce files in the 100MB range – clearly not very useful for streaming purposes.

So – I did a little research and came across the following settings which appear to produce a decent 640X480 video that streams comfortable and looks halfway decent. I’m using iMovie 8 as my editor and exporter.

• Under the "Share" menu, I chose "Export using QuickTime…"
• Under QuickTime settings I used:
• Size: 640X480
• Codec:H.264
• Frame rate: 29.97 fps
• Data rate restricted to 1,000kbs
• Optimized for streaming
• Best quality compression (multi-pass)
• Fast start with compressed header
• Audio: 16bit Apple lossless
• No filters

Unsurprisingly, Apple has a decent writeup on the subject of QuickTime settings.

Keep in mind my end objective was to simply show rough edits to a client so they’d have an idea of the work I’d done. The final edits, audio tweaking, fine-tuning and cover shots will come later, so we’ll want to spend more energy on finding the optimal settings. For this I’m relying on a local expert.

Tags: QuickTime, streaming video